How did 4 days in Adelaide pass us by so quickly? And how on earth are we now in our 4th month on the road? Goodness gracious is all I can say.
Right now I??m perched in the passenger seat of Yoshi, our beige Honda Accord, while Mike??s doing his best not to get another speeding ticket. We??re on a long, straight road from Adelaide to Sydney (via Swan Hill). When I said ??long?, I meant really long. Just passed a road sign saying ??Sydney 1300? - which if anything just goes to show that between here and there, there??s not much else. Maybe a petrol station or two. I hope. This is the Wild West.
The place we??re headed for ?? Murray Downs Resort ?? is, as you might expect, on or near the Murray River (we??ll find out when we get there). It??s in Victoria, near the New South Wales border; right now we??re still in South Australia. Among the kangaroos.
Adelaide has been very good to us over the past 3 and a half days. It??s given us 3 very good golf courses and one right off the top shelf (Royal Adelaide); lovely weather; great hospitality (particularly from our hosts, Blair & Kate); cheap fresh food (from the Adelaide Central Markets); and the best coffee we??ve had in weeks (at Bigo on Hutt Street, if you??re interested). But all good things must come to an end. Which is a rule I don??t particularly like.
Mick having been victorious the past couple of days at Glenelg & Royal the jammy dodger that he is has told you of the virtues of this place, and its golf courses. Despite his valiant efforts though, The Month of March ?? the stats month ?? went to me. With 3 points on offer each day (1 for most greens in reg; 1 for most fairways; and 1 for lowest putts), there were 93 on offer. Mick burgled 42 of ??em; I got my hands on the other 51. So that makes me 2-1 up, having won February & March (but choked in January in the matchplay).
Anyway. With a new month (April, for those of you that haven??t taken note) comes a new haggle. We??ve settled on skins, and The Rools go something like this.
Best to use today??s match as an illustration ?? although it??s pretty simple stuff, even for you Cleary. (Ignore the next 2 paragraphs if you??ve already got the gist of it). Mick and I traded blows for the first 5 holes, none being halved (M up 3-2 standing on 6 tee). I then won the 6th with a birdie, giving me a skin for the hole and a bonus for the birdie. So 4-3 JP after 6. Then 7, 8 and 9 (each worth 2 skins, remember) were halved ?? due largely to some determined putt draining by me mate the competitive and talented creature that he is. 7 skins sitting finely in the balance, then, on number 10, a dogleg left (magnificent!). When I smacked a drawing driver down the carpet and Mick rattled his 2 iron into the trees (or rather the ball he struck with his 2 iron, not the actual club itself), the engraver was starting to etch JP??s initials on those 7 skins. I held my nerve, made par and at last Goldy missed a 20 footer, so the score jumped to 11-3. Just like that.
You??ll be getting the picture by now, but to round off the spiel I??ll take you down the last 8 holes. Which were very strong holes, by the way ?? but I??ll get to that. Goldberger being frustrated at having let those 7 skins out of his sweaty grasp then took matters into his own hands with a fine birdie on 11, making my 12 footer for the same look that much longer. I missed; he won the skin and a bonus; then he won the next 2 holes for good measure. So 11-7 JP standing on 14 tee. I wasn??t about to let him have all the fun, nor snatch the day from me, so I made 2 on the par 3 14th, taking a skin and a bonus. 13-7. Then came the climax. 15 thru 17 were halved with some quality regulation-ish golf on a tough stretch. So 18 was worth 8 skins (1 for 15, 2 for each of 16 and 17, and 3 for 18 itself), meaning the match was still very much alive (at least for blog writing purposes anyway ?? the month??s skins will be aggregated in 29 days?? time). I stroked a 2 iron somewhere near the edge of the fairway; my opponent blocked his into the long stuff under the trees a hole over. Advantage JP. He chips out then pushed a wedge (very slightly) into one of two deadly greenside traps. Pin was right on the front of the raised, inverted pear shaped green; deep bunkers within 12 feet either side of the cup. My 7 iron found the left hand trap, leaving a shot that could quite easily trickle across the green and into the other. I took my medicine and hit it to the middle of the green, leaving myself 30 feet for 4. Goldberg fluffed his first bunker shot and left the second one on the far apron, rendering the match all but over. I rolled my putt in, sealing the deal ?? and collecting my 8 skins thank you very much. So 21-7 it finished. An exciting finish at that.
Enough about the match ?? what about The Grange (East)? Well. It??s pretty darn good, particularly the back 9. Quite different in character from Big Brother, the West Course (which is wider off the tee and lined with pines). The opening 4 or 5 holes trail through wetlands, before you get up onto the sandy stuff (apparently there used to be a fair it of sand throughout the opening holes too, but the developer ?? before the course was built in the 60s ?? carted it all off and sold it as building sand. There you go. Barry Linke ?? the very affable GM at The Grange ?? sat us down for a chinwag (in a room that felt much like a Headmaster??s Office, bringing back old memories of misdemeanours gone by) after our round, enlightening us on the history of the club and where it??s at now.
We found it pretty tight, certainly tighter than the West. And full of strong par 4s (driver, 6 iron sorta numbers). Unfortunately one of the par 5s and one of the par 3s was out of play, because Michael Clayton ?? a man whose name crops up a fair bit in golf conversations around these parts ?? is waving his wand. There??s been ripples of discontent among the lobby groups within the membership (gotta love golf club politics, don??t you), and a petition even signed to cease using his services. To be fair, word is, the naysayers are just keen on having fresh ideas for the East Course, given Clayton entirely revamped the West back in 2006 in preparation for hosting the Eisenhauer in 2008. But I digress.
Golf club politics is a topic of interest though, that I??d like to explore further for a moment. Throughout the past 91 days we??ve heard a fair few stories about intra-club frictions. Golfers are a passionate bunch of humans, on the whole, who are prone to guarding their precious club as ferociously as the Scots defended their boggy turf at Bannockburn all those years ago. Woe betide anyone that ruins their fine course by pulling a tree out here, or putting a pot bunker in there. It must be an unenviable position to be in, being a golf course architect charged with bringing an existing course up to scratch. Some members might agree change is needed; others might say leave it the hell alone, as Moses The Man Himself laid it out back in 2300 BC. Of those that agree change is good, some might agree on the nature of the change proposed; others might think the architect has gone made. As I said, an unenviable position, and a privileged one. Over the coming weeks Mick and I are hoping to meet with a few designers, to get their take, and hopefully to learn a thing or two in the process. Who knows, maybe there??s a career in there somewhere? Ha!
JP
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Chisholm Park
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